UNITED NATIONS, November 19. /TASS/. The United Nations is concerned about any possible escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, answering a TASS reporter’s question about the recent Ukrainian strike on the borderline Russian region of Bryansk.
"The UN has always expressed our concern about the escalation and <…> the fact that this conflict is even continuing, let alone escalating," he said, when asked to comment on Ukraine’s use of ATACMS missiles in its latest strike on Russia’s Bryansk Region.
The spokesman reiterated that all parties to the conflict are obliged to avoid civilian casualties.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that on Monday night into Tuesday, Ukraine attacked Russia’s borderline Bryansk Region with six ATACMS missiles. Five of them were shot down by Russia’s Pantsir and S-400 missile defense systems and one was damaged. The missiles crashed on the premises of a military facility in the Bryansk Region, causing a fire that was promptly put out. "There were no casualties or damage," the ministry noted.
At a press conference following the Group of Twenty summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, commenting on the incident, said that Ukraine’s strikes on the Bryansk Region using ATACMS missiles are a sign that the West is trying to escalate the situation, as such strikes are impossible without American help.